


Tradition

by doesshelooklikeawitch



Category: Supernatural
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, chirstmas eve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-12
Updated: 2018-12-12
Packaged: 2019-09-17 00:11:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16964109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doesshelooklikeawitch/pseuds/doesshelooklikeawitch
Summary: Castiel helps Dean decorate for Christmas, and the holiday cheer makes Dean bolder than usual.





	Tradition

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
> Christmas Eve

“Dean, the angels weren’t floating in the sky at the Lord’s birth…” Castiel reached out to remove the small angels from the nativity scene Dean was setting up in the bunker.

“Cas, this is how it’s supposed to get set up,” Dean replied, swatting away the other man’s hand as he crouched protectively over the small nativity near the fake fireplace they’d installed. A few feet away was a medium-sized tree, sparsely decorated.

"But Dean-”

“No, Cas. It’s not about history. It’s about tradition.” He straightened up and found himself inches from the angel’s face.

“I’m not following,” Cas replied still stuck on the historically inaccurate angel.

“This is the way it was set up when we were kids. This is the way it’s set up now. That’s all you need to worry about.” Dean grinned crookedly, then clapped Cas on the shoulder and took a step back to admire his display. Sure, it was Christmas Eve and he was only just now setting up most of the decorations, but it was better late than never. They’d been busy on a case and now Sam was down in the kitchen trying to prepare some home-cooked food for Christmas day. Castiel was supposed to be helping with the decorations, but instead insisted on fact checking everything Dean arranged. It was annoying, but far better than putting Castiel in charge of the music.

He wouldn’t admit it, but Dean secretly enjoyed setting up for Christmas with Cas. They hadn’t spent much time together recently, much less time alone together, and it was nice to do so without the urgency of a case hanging over their heads. Dean remembered the case they’d worked right before Halloween, when Cas had helped him deal with a ghost who had infiltrated his dreams. Cas had been guarding Dean as he slept in the house, while Sam was in the basement burning anything he could find, throwing anything that looked like it might have been connected to the ghost into the furnace. Dean had taken some herbs to induce sleep, and Cas sat over him as the lucid nightmares came without end. Eventually, it was Cas’s voice, and his hand clutching Dean’s so tightly, that helped bring him back. Dean, the terror of what he’d just experienced still haunting his eyes, sat up, panting, and hugged Cas tightly. He’d never tell him, especially, now, but the nightmares induced by the ghost were focused on not only Sam dying, but also Castiel, and it shocked Dean how his heart broke in those dreams.

When he sat up and hugged the angel, there was a moment, after they had each pulled back to try and regain some distance, where Dean was sure that Castiel somehow knew what he was thinking. He was sure that they were about to kiss. His breath caught as their eyes locked, and just as he’d convinced himself to give into it, just for a moment, they heard Sam coming up the stairs, calling out to them. Dean and his angel stood, the spell broken, and they moved on with the case.

They hadn’t spoken about that moment, but the fact that Cas, He Without Tact, never brought it up, suggested that either he was avoiding the subject as much as possible or he hadn’t even noticed that anything different had happened between them, however briefly. Dean couldn’t bring himself to discuss it and risk the embarrassment, so he just let it go.

But now, as they prepared for a holiday without a looming death curse or apocalypse or other case to worry about, Dean felt cheerful; as Cas helped him arrange the decorations they’d either bought last minute or found in the bunker’s cellars, the intentionally ignored feelings began to surface again.

Castiel returned to the box of antique decorations and began rifling through them.

“Dean?”

“Yeah Cas?” Dean taped more fake evergreen garland along the edges of the low bookshelves, singing under his breath to the classic holiday music.

“Why is the child’s mother kissing Santa Claus? In popular mythology he is married, right? I mean, to a different woman?”

“No, Cas, she’s kissing her husband. The kid’s dad, okay?”

Cas turned around, face drawn in deep thought. “So the child’s father is Santa Claus? Why would he sing ab—”

“No, Cas! C’mon! You’re killing me here, man.” Dean shook his head and ripped more tape off as angrily as one can rip tape. “Just go with it.”

“I’m trying. Christmas celebrations are just a bit more… complicated than they used to be.” Cas reached into a newer box and pulled out a couple of festively decorated hats with large ears on the sides. He held them up and Dean read his expression as part exasperation and part confusion. The hunter walked over and grabbed the first hat, pulled it down over Cas’s head and adjusted the felt elf ears so that they sat properly over Cas’s own ears. Ignoring Cas’s unamused expression, Dean took the other hat and adjusted it properly on his own head, grinning widely. “Dean, no actual elves would do any of this labor for free.”

“Damnit Cas! Just be an elf.”

“Fine, Dean.” Cas sighed and fixed the hat again.

“Thank you. You look good as an elf,” Dean grinned again, definitely flirting just a little. Cas cracked a small smile himself and Dean tossed him a bag of garland. “Why don’t you put these on those bookshelves, ang— I mean, elf?”

Cas rolled his eyes in reply but took the garland over to the tall shelves. A few minutes of struggling with the heavy garland and reaching for the top of the shelf later, Cas finally asked for help. “Um, Dean I believe this is a two man—” Dean coughed loudly. Cas sighed. “A two elf situation. Will you come help please?”

There was no denying the pep in Dean’s step as he reached over Cas to hold the garland on the shelf, his torso just grazing Cas’s back as the angel reached for the rest of the decoration. He wasn’t sure why he was feeling so bold tonight, flirting and getting closer to Cas than he had intentionally in a long time. He wasn’t even sure that Cas felt that there was anything between them. This could all just be a one-sided thing, considering Cas’s inability to read subtext most of the time. But he definitely felt something. And between the Christmas cheer, the lack of apocalypse and the couple of beers he had enjoyed while decorating with the angel, Dean was wondering what it would be like to kiss him. And maybe more, but for now, the kiss would be enough. It would be sublime, something told him.

He leaned even further into Cas as they finished securing the garland, and noticed that Cas didn’t move away until the job was done. Perhaps…

“Hey Cas I need your hand with something else,” Dean went over to the newer box and pulled out another green and red plastic plant. He pulled over a chair and started to stand up on it under the doorway. Cas came over to hold the chair steady as Dean secured the decoration in the center of the doorway, hanging a few inches below the door frame. Dean steadied himself on Cas’s shoulder as he hopped down from the chair and slid it out of the way.

“Is that… mistletoe?” Cas asked.

“It is.” Dean offered his most charming smile.

“Why is it in the doorway?”

“When two people stand under the mistletoe, they’re supposed to kiss…” Dean took two tiny steps towards Cas so they were nearly toe to toe, his gaze steadily meeting the angel’s, hoping that for once he would catch on without needing an explanation.

Cas glanced up at the decor again and then back at Dean, whose face was inches away. Dean’s heart had picked up a faster tempo and he took a slow deep breath to try and calm it down as he watched Cas’s expression move from curious to understanding to slightly troubled. Dean’s stomach lurched as he realized this might have backfired.

“Dean… I think I know what’s going on here, but we’ve been through a lot, and not always on the same side. There’s a difficult history here.”  


Dean shook his head a little and pointed to the mistletoe above them without looking away. “Cas. It’s Christmas. It’s not about history, it’s about tradition.” He half-shrugged, grinning again as his fingers tilted Cas’s chin up a little. He paused a beat to make sure Cas had no other protests and then leaned in slowly but decisively to kiss him. Cas, finally catching on and giving in, was the one to close the distance between them at last.


End file.
